


the language of love

by slytherfuck



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Asexual Arthur, Biromantic Arthur, Falling In Love, Fluff, French, Gay Character, M/M, Multilingual Character, Romanian, kind of teacher/student but you know... not creepy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 19:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18947464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherfuck/pseuds/slytherfuck
Summary: arthur and adrian fall in love in three languages.





	the language of love

**Author's Note:**

> adrian is romanian because so am I. that is all.
> 
> also, english translations in the end notes. i really hope i wrote everything correct in french. i tried not to use the dreaded google translate, so that is all me.

You see, Adrian never thought he would end up like this. All he had wanted was to learn some French. It wasn’t his fault that his teacher ended up being a gorgeous angel with the bone structure of a greek god. Or that said teacher was the sappiest fucking guy he had ever met. The minute he had set his blue eyes on him, Adrian was gone.

Their first session was mainly a conversation, slightly one sided. The thing was, Adrian could understand French, if spoken slowly. And he could say some things, like “Je m’appelle Adrian.” or “Excusez-moi.” But, if he wanted to have a decent life in Paris, he had to be able to hold a conversation in French. Without Arthur, he would have been entirely lost. But, all he was able to do was stare in Arthur’s eyes and listen, sometimes saying a “Oui.” or “Je comprends.”, but nothing more. Arthur was quite the talker.

Their second session, Arthur gave him an exam, to see how much French Adrian actually knew. He knew grammar, mostly. The gender of nouns was still a pain in the ass. Arthur laughed when he told him. That day, Adrian talked more, as they only spoke English. Arthur’s accent was adorable. 

Their third session, Arthur decided they’d watch a movie on Netflix with french subtitles. “To get you used to how actual french people talk. We’re not as slow as I am with you. In fact, I don’t think I’ve talked this slow in my entire life.” The movie had been good, and Adrian actually understood a lot of what they had been saying. But he couldn’t fully concentrate, as Arthur’s thigh had been pressed against his. He would later learn, the blond hadn’t paid much attention to the movie either.

Their fourth, Arthur told him to write down everything he knew in French. The first thing Adrian wrote was “Je t’aime.” Reading the list, Arthur was clearly trying to suppress a smile. Then, he asked Adrian to teach him some Romanian. The first thing he asked was how to say “I love you.” Adrian almost melted while he tried to pronounce “Te iubesc.”

*

After months of boring sessions, filled with exercises and some movies, a year had finally passed. That day, Arthur had been unusually chipper. His blue eyes shined, and he was constantly smiling. That made Adrian smile as well.

“C’est notre anniversaire.”

“Oui, je sais. Bon anniversaire?”

“Bon anniversaire!” 

“T’as quelque chose de special pour aujourd’hui?”

“Oui, en fait. On va manger au restaurant. Et, peut-être, tu m’enseignes un peu de roumaine aussi?”

“Si je peux commander.”

And off they went. Surprisingly, or not, Arthur had had this whole thing planned. Never before in his life had Adrian been to such a fancy place. He felt greatly unwelcome there, but then Arthur smiled at him and grabbed his arm, guiding him to their table, as well as pulling the chair for him. 

When the waiter came, Arthur ordered the most expensive champagne, adding, with the most cheerful voice, that it was their anniversary. The look the waiter gave them made Adrian blush.

“Tu sais qu’ils pensent qu’on est un couple, non?”

Arthur just winked. 

Adrian did end up ordering. When the food came, he started telling him what everything was in Romanian, with the blond repeating every word. After a whole year, Arthur’s accent still made him melt. 

An evening of laughing, eating, drinking and their feet touching under the table passed, and Adrian found himself walking Arthur home. It had started snowing, and Arthur was grinning his stupidly adorable grin, snowflakes caught in his hair. Adrian’s cheeks were red, and not from the wind. They were talking in english now.

“Why did you come to Paris?”

“I had to.”

“But why?”

It took Adrian a long time to answer. Too long, maybe. But Arthur waited.

“My country is a dead country. I couldn’t live there anymore.”

“I’m sorry.” He felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he looked down at Arthur, his eyes were soft. A sudden urge to hug him came over him, so strong he couldn’t resist. He wanted to hug this smiley boy, who was shorter than him but who, right now, made him feel small. And it felt so good, letting himself be vulnerable after months of having to be powerful, unbreakable, to just be able to have a decent life somewhere he felt safe.

Arthur hugged him back, hard. _Stay, please._ He whispered in his ear. With such tenderness and such warmth surrounding him, Adrian found himself unable to say no to Arthur.

*

One night, very much similar to the one when Adrian decided to stay, he realized he had forgotten to ask a very important question.

“Arthur?”

“Oui?”

“Qu’est-ce…” Emotion so strong overcame him when he thought of the future awaiting him, with Arthur as his boyfriend (hopefully) that he hadn’t been able to process what he wanted to say in French. So, Adrian settled on English. What are we? He almost said, but decided against it, choosing to be bolder. Some part of him already knew the answer Arthur would give him, but the thrill of asking made it even sweeter. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

The blond sat up, looking at him with a gleeful smile on his lips as well as in his eyes. Kissing the tip of his nose, he murmured “I thought I already was your boyfriend.” He then proceeded to pepper kisses all over Adrian’s face, blushing from both something scarily similar to love and how beautiful “your boyfriend” sounded coming from Arthur.

*

It had been a month since Arthur wasn’t his teacher anymore. Well, he still helped Adrian with his French, but it wasn’t as (Adrian struggled to find the right word) academical as before. If their time spent together had previously been talking, and failing, on Adrian’s part, French across a table, now they would cuddle and speak mostly in English, with a few words in French, the few he could muster. Because, around Arthur, his brain seemed frozen. Languages weren’t as important as the way Arthur’s glasses sat crooked on his nose or how soft his hands were.

“Mon coeur?”

Adrian would have blushed to the tips of his ears if he hadn’t been so used to how sweetly his boyfriend spoke. That time, he just looked up from his book to where Arthur had been making hot cocoa. 

“Je veux que tu rencontres mes potes.”

That’s how Adrian ended up here, sitting on the grass on a chilly March day, surrounded by people he didn’t know, as Arthur introduced him. 

“C’est mon mec, Adrian!”

He didn’t even have time to say anything himself before a boy with eyes almost as beautiful as Arthur’s almost yelled.

“Attends, t’es gay?”

“Non, Lucas.

“T’es bisexuel alors?” 

“Non, Alexia. En fait, je suis asexuel. Mais, oui, j’aime les hommes et les femmes.”

“Moi, je suis gay.” Added Adrian, starting to feel left out. That made the guy from earlier, Lucas, smile widely.

“Enfin, un autre qui est gay! J’ai commencé à me sentir un peu seul.”

“Hey! Je suis ici!” Shouted a blonde girl.

“Oui, Daphné, je sais que t’es lesbienne, mais c’est pas la même chose.” 

All of them laughed as Daphne huffed, and Adrian laughed as well, feeling Arthur’s thigh against his own. 

A few minutes later, a frenzied-looking guy approached, making a double-take when he saw Adrian, making everyone laugh again. Apparentely, that was the infamous Basile. 

On their way home, well, Athur’s home, but Adrian spent more time there than at his own place, he vaguely remembered Arthur telling him about Lucas having a boyfriend. But, from all the couples there, he couldn’t remember any boyfriend of Lucas’. There had been Manon and Daphné, Emma and some guy named Yann, Imane and her very beautiful Sofiane, as well as Basile and Alexia, who had spent almost half an hour telling Adrian about a trip they had taken to Romania, just the two of them. At first, he had thought they were together, but, judging by the longing looks the both of them shot Daphné, things seemed more complicated than he’d imagined. 

“Didn’t you say Lucas had a boyfriend? Emile, or something.”

“Eliott. Apparentely, he wasn’t feeling very well.” 

Adrian coud tell Arthur was a bit sad. It made sense, with how much he seemed to love his friends. He took his hand as an answer more meaningful than anything he could have said.

*

Adrian was laying with his head on Athur’s chest, the steady beating of his heart lulling him to sleep. He felt warm, and safe. Safer than he had felt in a really long time. A vibration woke him up, and he opened his eyes, confused, before he realized Arthur had been speaking. Saying his name in the sweetest sleepy, raspy voice, to be exact. 

“Hmm?”

“How do you say “I love you” in Romanian?”

Adrian raised his head, looking at his boyfriend. His eyes looked even bluer without his glasses.

“Why?”

“Because I forgot.” He grinned innocently, his teeth sparkling in the low fairy lights Arthur had hanged in his bedroom, a gift from Adrian. The blond had laughed at first, said they were silly and that he would never put them anywhere in his house, but he had later thanked Adrian with the sweetest kiss he could muster while smiling widely as they were. A week later, the fairy lights were proudly displayed on his bookshelves. Adrian said nothing, but Arthur would catch him gazing at them softly from time to time.

“Te iubesc.”

“Say that again?”

“Te. Iubesc.”

“Shouldn’t there be an apostrophe?”

“No!” Adrian huffed, fond and a little exasperated. That little shit.

“Okay, okay! Te iubesc.”

“Yeah, that’s good. Anything else you want to know, or can I go to sleep now?”

“No, no.” Arthur gently stroked his cheek, gazing in his eyes, a bit unfocused without his glasses, but determined nonetheless. “Te iubesc, Adrian.”

Oh. Oh.

Staring at his boyfriend, he felt heat somewhere in his belly, spreading throughout his whole body, up to his fingers, tingling where they were still seated on Arthur’s chest, as he realised the meaning. As he realised he loved him too.

“Je t’aime, Arthur.”

They grinned with the light of a thousand suns, and they kissed and kissed until they couldn’t breathe, and then they kissed some more.

**Author's Note:**

> translations:
> 
> Je m'appelle Adrian - My name is Adrian
> 
> Excusez-moi - Excuse me/Sorry
> 
> Oui - Yes
> 
> Je comprends - I understand
> 
> Je t'aime - I love you
> 
> Te iubesc - I love you (romanian)
> 
> C'est notre anniversaire - It's our anniversary
> 
> Oui, je sais - Yes, I know
> 
> Bon anniversaire - Happy anniversary
> 
> T'as quelque de special pour aujourd'hui? - Do you have anything special for today?
> 
> Oui, en fait. On va manger au restaurant. Et, peut-être, tu m’enseignes un peu de roumaine aussi? - Yes, in fact. We're going to eat at the restaurant. And, maybe, you teach me some romanian as well?
> 
> Si je peux commander - If I can order
> 
> Tu sais qu’ils pensent qu’on est un couple, non? - You know they think we're a couple, don't you?
> 
> Qu’est-ce... - What...
> 
> Mon coeur? - My heart?
> 
> Je veux que tu rencontres mes potes - I want you to meet my friends
> 
> C’est mon mec, Adrian! - This is my boyfriend, Adrian
> 
> Attends, t'es gay? - Wait, you're gay?
> 
> T’es bisexuel alors? - Are you bisexual, then?
> 
> Non, Alexia. En fait, je suis asexuel. Mais, oui, j’aime les hommes et les femmes. - No, Alexia. In fact, I'm asexual. But, yes, I like men and women.
> 
> Moi, je suis gay - I'm gay
> 
> Enfin, un autre qui est gay! J’ai commencé à me sentir un peu seul. - Finally, another one who is gay! I started to feel a little lonely.
> 
> Hey! Je suis ici! - Hey! I'm here!
> 
> Oui, Daphné, je sais que t’es lesbienne, mais c’est pas la même chose - Yes, Daphné, I know you're a lesbian, but it's not the same thing 
> 
>  
> 
> also i'm on tumblr @legitpotato if you like utter garbage.


End file.
